Swans rescued in Derbyshire village and treated for poisoning

Michael Broomhead

A number of whooper swans have been rescued in a Derbyshire village and treated for poisoning.

The swans became stranded on a tailings dam on land owned by British Fluorspar near Stoney Middleton.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust trust was alerted by British Fluorspar on Tuesday, April 12, and visited the site to find a number of swans had died with a further nine still trapped on the tailings dam.

The trust called in help from the RSPCA, Yorkshire Swan Rescue and vet Sue Mayer and coordinated a rescue with British Fluorspar using a boat and canoe to round up the distressed whooper swans.

Seven of the swans were carefully herded to the lakeside, checked over, wrapped up in protective blankets and transported to Yorkshire Swan Rescue's wildlife hospital near York.

Sadly, one of the rescued swans died and the remaining six received treatment for poisoning.

This treatment is expected to take up to three weeks and the swans are responding well and already putting on weight.

Two swans could not be caught initially but the RSPCA has since returned to catch them and they have also been taken to the Yorkshire Swan Rescue centre.

Tim Birch, the trust's head of advocacy and conservation strategy, said: "I'm delighted that we managed to rescue these whooper swans which were in poor health and were unable to fly. It was important to act quickly or more birds could have died. We are hopeful that they will recover."